Why Teens and Adults Send X-Rated Texts

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NEW YORK CITY — In some social circles, sending a nude photo via
text message — sexting — leads to public shame, embarrassment and
a ruined reputation for the sender.

There have been countless stories of what happens when a naked or
suggestive message falls into the wrong hands — just ask former
congressman Anthony
Weiner. But rarely do we discuss why people send these
messages in the first place.

In some cases, according to Danah Boyd, a senior researcher at
Microsoft Research, peer group pressure creates an environment
where sexting is just another part of the conversation.

Next stop: fame

At the Internet Safety Symposium in late June in New York City,
Boyd told the stories of two teens whom she observed and wrote
about as part of her doctoral dissertation, which she earned from
the University of California, Berkeley, while studying how
American teens socialize in online social networks.

The first student she discussed, a 15-year-old girl named
Traviesa, covered her MySpace profile with "artistically styled
but explicitly sexual nude and semi-nude photos of herself," Boyd
said.

Traviesa, Boyd said, took her cues, however misguided, from
pseudo-celebrities such as Tila Tequila and Paris Hilton. Both
women's careers were launched after nude photos and sex videos of
them were leaked onto the Web.

Although Traviesa didn't send any racy messages of herself to a
specific person, she did put her explicit photos out in the open,
where anybody could see them and use them in any way they wanted.

"She told me that she wanted to be a model and that she was going
to work hard to break into the business; she believed that she
was going to be found on MySpace just like Tila Tequila." Boyd
said. "Traviesa believed that she, too, could become famous if
she
exposed herself online."

Sexting to get a date

Some teens see sexting as a stepping-stone to stardom. In other
circles, it is merely another form of social currency that can
put young girls ahead of their peers — in many young men's eyes,
at least.

Boyd referenced a May
26 New York Times article in which a group of teens from New
York City and a Philadelphia suburb were asked their thoughts
about sexting. Kathy, a 17-year-old from Queens, spoke frankly
about how the practice has pervaded youth culture.

"At my school, if you like a boy and you want to get his
attention, you know what you have to do," she told the Times. She
added, "There's a positive side to sexting. You can't get
pregnant from it, and you can't transmit STD's. It's a kind of
safe sex."

In her presentation, Boyd said the girls "believed they were
strutting their stuff and sexting was just another practice in a
long line of practices meant to signal that they were cool, sexy
girls."

Don't panic ... yet

Kathy, the Queens teen, had a point, Boyd said.

Boyd clarified that sexting is a sex act, "and as with any sex
acts, there are loving versions and abusive versions," she told
SecurityNewsDaily.

When X-rated messages are used to "shame, hurt, or manipulate
people, we should be worried," she said. "But when we see them
done lovingly, we should not be panicked. This is why it's
critical to clarify the law. We don't want kids to be arrested
for all of their
sex acts, even if we do want to protect them from being
violated."

Panic, Boyd told SecurityNewsDaily, is at the heart of the issue.
And it's an issue that is much larger than a teen sending a racy
picture message.

"These are social-level issues more than individual issues," Boyd
said.

Fingers can be pointed at the media, at celebrity culture and at
adults who set poor examples, she added, "but it's all of the
above and more. We're far too individualistic in our approach to
these matters, seeing teens as individuals and their parents as
the sole actors who are responsible. Society is far
more complex than that."

What's the future of sexting?

Much of Boyd's presentation focused on teens and young adults
sending risqué photos, but the future of the medium is in the
hands of adults, she believes. And that's a problem.

"People focus heavily on teen sexting because of the legal issues
and because of our concerns about teen sexuality. But adults
are engaged in this practice just as much if not more than
teens," Boyd told SecurityNewsDaily.

Boyd said teens and adults in their 20s may use sexting "as part
of courtship," but adults are using
sexting to cheat.

Herein lies another problem: cheaters never win, especially if
they don't have the tech savvy do it correctly.

"If you think about it," Boyd said, "most teens have access to
technology to sext and they know how to use it; adults are just
learning. And boy are they messing up."